Sky News reported Sunday that the U.S.-based social networking giant is looking to roll out a policy in the next two weeks that will block ads associated with cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges and initial coin offerings, with limited exceptions.
In an email, a Twitter representative said the company would not comment for now, but also did not deny the report. The move is notable as Twitter has came a popular forum for, not only blockchain industry enthusiasts and firms, but also celebrities promoting crypto token offerings that have been frowned upon by regulators, as well as scammers impersonating real accounts in order to hoax investors, an information security training analyst said.
It also follows a comment earlier this month from Jack Dorsey, CEO and founder of Twitter, indicating that the firm would double down on its efforts to tackle the scourge of crypto scammers on the platform.
Twitter’s reported crypto ad ban would come in the wake of both Facebook ban of crypto advertising in January, and Google’s recent update to its Financial Services policy that will ban crypto ads starting in June 2018.
Information security training experts said that “the new advertising policy will be implemented in two weeks and currently stands to prohibit advertisements for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), token sales, and cryptocurrency wallets globally.”
Twitter has experienced an influx of fake accounts pretending to advertise cryptocurrency giveaways, often by users posing as famous crypto sphere personas like Litecoin’s Charlie Lee.
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on application and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.
